Hello Friends,

It is with much sadness that I write this post.  My time at Smexy Books has come to an end. I will never forget that day that Mandi emailed me and asked if I might be interested in reviewing with her and Tori.  At the time, I was a stay-at-home-mom. I would read while my kids were at soccer practice. When I found the Goodreads community my reading world opened and I found so many other genres I had not explored before.  Talking books was how Mandi and I met and well, the rest is history.

I want to say thank you to Mandi and all the smexy girls.  We’ve never met, and I still hold out hope that we will do so…one day.  My time on this blog meant so much more than words could ever adequately say. But while blogging/reviewing may be ending for me, I know we’ll keep in touch and that books will forever be the glue that sticks us all together.

Mand and Tori, I love you both so much. Thank you for letting me into the club.  So much love to you both!

Sheena, Kini, and Angela–good luck going forward.  Love and hugs to you all!

To say goodbye, here are some of my favorite reads of 2018:

Sarah J. Maas – Court of Thorns and Roses series

This series was so good! It’s considered YA Fantasy, but I would put this in the NA category for content.  That said, I absolutely loved it and powered through everything up to the latest release from May of this year.  The the 4th story, a novella, was a bit disappointing, I will definitely follow up when this author releases the next chapter in this incredible world.

I ventured back into Romantic Suspense and the Mystery/Thriller genres after reading mostly contemporaries and paranormals for the last few years.  It was great! I had forgotten what it was like to be right in the middle of a story and being so sure that you knew who the bad guy was only to get further and see how wrong I was.  I read some great books in this genre.

Here are a few:

The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sagar

All Your Perfects by Colleen Hoover

The Girl in The Moss by Loreth Anne White

Lastly I wanted to highlight some new to me authors that I really enjoyed and look forward to reading more from:

Penelope Ward and Vi Keeland.  I will read anything by these authors either as a collaboration or individually.  I love how their couples always meet under such unique circumstances. There is always humor with just the right mount of emotion and angst.  I look forward to catching up on both of their extensive back lists.

Jenny Holiday. I read this author after reading a review by Kini and that was it.  Holiday’s story hit all my buttons. So far I’ve read the first two of the Bridesmaids Behaving Badly series and catch wait to catch up.

Also recommended by Kini was Kate Canterbary, The Walshes.  As all books were released prior to 2018, I was able to read them one after the other and this was fantastic!  No year long wait for the next book. I love reading a series like this. Of course, I get nothing else done when in the thrall of a fantastic series with a very interesting family at its center.  

So, there you have it!  My time with these Smexy Girls has been the best and I will truly miss you all.